Education and the new right

1. The New Right created an ‘education market’ – Schools were run like businesses –
competing with each other for pupils and parents were given the choice over which
school they send their children to rather than being limited to the local school in
their catchment area. This lead to the establishment of league tables- marketisation

2. Schools should teach subjects that prepare pupils for work, Hence education should
be aimed at supporting economic growth. Hence: New Vocationalism!
3. The state was to provide a framework in order to ensure that schools were all
teaching the same thing and transmitting the same shared values – hence
the National Curriculum

Key points:
- Believed that the standards for education was too low and that creating an
education market will raise these standards

- Role of the state: imposes a national curriculum- social solidarity and impose a
Framework of inspection of schools to make sure they are up to the standards.

- State should create a business-friendly environment and encourage competition

- Chubb and moe- consumer choice: parents should be able to choose what school
their kids attend so they don’t only enroll them into schools based on location,
budget.

Criticisms:
- Competition between schools benefited the middle classes and lower classes, ethnic
minorities and rural communities ended up having less effective choice – refer to the
handout criticising the 1988 Education Act

- The National Curriculum has been criticised for being ethnocentric and too
restrictive on teachers and schools